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Why did such highly abstract ideas as truth, knowledge, or justice become so important to us? What was the point of coming to think in these terms? Matthieu Queloz presents a method for answering such questions: pragmatic genealogy. We can make sense of these grand abstractions by identifying their roots in concrete practical concerns.
List of contents
- Acknowledgements
- 1: Why We Came to Think as We Do
- 2: The Benefits of Reverse-Engineering
- 3: When Genealogy Is Called For
- 4: Ideas as Remedies to Inconveniences: David Hume
- 5: A Genetic History of Thought: Friedrich Nietzsche
- 6: Loosening the Need-Concept Tie: Edward Craig
- 7: The Uses of Intrinsic Value: Bernard Williams
- 8: A Political and Ameliorative State of Nature: Miranda Fricker
- 9: The Normative Significance of Pragmatic Genealogies
- 10: Ideas Worth Having
- Bibliography
- Index
About the author
Matthieu Queloz is a Junior Research Fellow at Wolfson College and Member of the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Oxford. Before that, he completed a PhD at the University of Basel and an MA at the University of Zurich. His articles have appeared in journals such as Mind, Philosophers' Imprint, The Philosophical Quarterly, and Synthese. He received the 2020 Lauener Prize for Up-and-Coming Philosophers.
Summary
Why did such highly abstract ideas as truth, knowledge, or justice become so important to us? What was the point of coming to think in these terms? Matthieu Queloz presents a method for answering such questions: pragmatic genealogy. We can make sense of these grand abstractions by identifying their roots in concrete practical concerns.
Additional text
Matthieu Queloz's The Practical Origins of Ideas is a valuable contribution to the ongoing debate over the role of concepts in philosophy. By synthesizing genealogy and conceptual engineering, Queloz offers a novel approach to understanding the origins and development of philosophical ideas ... a significant step forward in the study of conceptual engineering and genealogy, offering new tools for the analysis and improvement of philosophical concepts.
